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All around us there are signs in abundance that the Apostasy is spreading. Parishes are emptying, more and more Catholics who have remained are approving of same-sex "marriage" and other forms of dissent. Preparation for the Reign of Antichrist is in full swing. Does this trouble Archbishop Loris Capovilla? One would wonder. For instead of addressing the myriad evils of our time, the Archbishop has chosen to address something which does concern him: the Fatima apparition and Marian devotion in general. As noted here, Archbishop Capovilla has "reservations" about Fatima and what he refers to as "excessive focus on Marian...

Sunday, March 25, 2012Blog comment: "...you are making a lot of potentially very powerful people very, very angry." In one of his last homilies, Archbishop Oscar Romero, the martyred Archbishop of San Salvador, said: "A preaching that does not point out sin is not the preaching of the gospel. A preaching that makes sinners feel good so that they become entrenched in their sinful state, betrays the gospel's call. A preaching that does not discomfit sinners but lulls them in their sin leaves Zebulun and Naphtali in the shadow of death. A preaching that awakens, a preaching that enlightens --...

Terence Weldon, the radical homosexual activist who authors the "Queering the Church" Blog and who serves as an Extraordinary Minister at the infamous Soho Masses in England - the same disturbed individual who has blasphemously suggested that Our Lord Jesus had a homosexual inclination - is once again challenging the authoritative teaching of the Catholic Church regarding the homosexual inclination. He writes, "In the CDF Hallowe’en Letter [here he is sarcastically and irreverently refering to the October 1, 1986 document entitled "Letter on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons" published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith], possibly...

Baltimore - The leading voice of Roman Catholic bishops opposing a contraception mandate in the Obama administration's health care law was named Tuesday as the 16th archbishop of Baltimore, the nation's first diocese. Bishop William E. Lori, 60, comes from the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., and has testified before Congress several times in the past few months on a proposed measure to make religious employers cover contraception for their employees. The White House later backed off the rule, making insurers pay for the coverage, though many critics are still not satisfied. In one instance

The first thing to be said about Dr. Rowan Williams is that he is by common consent a subtle theologian, a sensitive pastoral priest, and a genuinely good and holy man, because a great many less flattering things will be said about him in the next few months, some of them further down this column. Dr. Williams announced last Friday that he intended to resign at the end of the year as Archbishop of Canterbury and therefore as spiritual leader of the Church of England and, by extension, of the 77 million–strong Anglican Communion around the world. His announcement came...

San Francisco's Catholic archbishop has jumped into the latest national culture war, blasting the Obama administration's controversial requirement that employers - including Catholic hospitals, universities and institutions - provide birth control and other contraceptive services as part of their health care insurance plans. While the rule is not scheduled to take effect fully until August 2013, that isn't stopping partisans from leaping into battle positions in this election year. The issue is reopening the nation's cultural divide at time when voters care most about the perilous economy. The battle is over how to frame this issue - as an example...

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who leads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services, wrote a letter to be read at all Sunday Masses for U.S. military personnel around the world that said that a regulation issued by the Obama Administration under the new federal health care law was “a blow” to a freedom that U.S. troops have not only fought to defend but for which some have recently died in battle. “It is a blow to a freedom that you have fought to defend and for which you have seen your buddies fall in battle,” the archbishop wrote.

Friday's announcement that New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan will be elevated to cardinal in February reflects his growing prominence in the American Catholic Church, and near meteoric rise since leaving the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in 2009. Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is one of just two U.S. prelates on a list of 22 new cardinals announced by Pope Benedict XVI after a special Epiphany Mass closing the Church's Christmas celebrations. The cardinals serve as the pope's key advisers and elect his successor. The elevation of the 61-year-old prelate, though not unexpected, follows a number of significant...

Really? Didn’t Jesus have a job?Blessed are they who took out $150,000 in student loans to get a degree in Marxist Semiotics. In a British magazine, the leader of the world’s 78 million Anglicans worldwide insisted that Jesus would be “there, sharing the risks, not just taking sides.”…In his article written for the Christmas edition of the Radio Times magazine, the archbishop said Jesus was “constantly asking awkward questions” in the Bible.In the St. Paul’s encampment, Williams added, Jesus would be “steadily changing the entire atmosphere by the questions that he asked of everybody involved — rich and poor, capitalist...

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams thinks “atheism is cool” and that’s made it difficult for his church to convey its message. Well, he’s right that there’s been a recent surge in the popularity of atheism, but that’s not the reason the church isn’t growing. Think back to the “cool” people you know in high school. They were the ones willing to say what no one else was saying, the people who always maintained a certain level of confidence, the people who didn’t care what you thought because it just didn’t matter. That’s the position a lot of young atheists are...

Wow. This definitely represents a significant escalation of tone and includes the threat of consequences if the Obama administration does not, as this letter from Archbishop Timothy Dolan to the President calls for, “push the reset button� on their multipronged efforts to undermine marriage and treat Catholics who believe in marriage as bigots.Abp. Dolan is careful to point out that his opinion represents the view of the bishops conference: The Justice Department‟s move [to undermine DOMA], in addition to other troubling federal decisions occurring recently, prompts me yet again to register my grave concerns. The content of this letter reflects...

The spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, will resign his position next year almost a decade before he is due to retire in order to return to academic life, a newspaper reported on Sunday. Williams, 61, who has worked hard to prevent the worldwide Anglican community from splitting over the ordination of women and gay bishops, may take up a senior post at Cambridge University, the Sunday Telegraph said. ...Williams has regularly come under fire for his outspoken comments, most recently making headlines in June with an attack on the British government’s deficit-cutting austerity programme....

Christians (and presumably non-Christians, too!) “make a very serious mistake� if they turn to news outlets like The New York Times, Newsweek, CNN and MSNBC for “reliable news about religion,� the incoming bishop of Philadelphia told a crowd of young people in Spain last week. LifeSiteNews reports: “Being uninformed about the world and its problems and issues is a sin against our vocation as disciple[s],” Archbishop Charles Chaput told his audience during a special World Youth Day session in Madrid. And yet, he went on to note, the Christian believer is faced with a unique challenge in finding accurate sources...

The news outlets CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and Newsweek have come under fire by Philadelphia’s incoming Archbishop, for a lack of “trustworthiness” where matters of religious faith are concerned. According to Archbishop Charles Chaput, the media do not “provide trustworthy information about religious faith. ” His comments were made Wednesday during an address on religious freedom before some 10,000 pilgrims at the Catholic World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain. Archbishop Chaput told the group of young faith-goers, “in the United States, our battles over abortion, family life, same-sex ‘marriage,’ and other sensitive issues have led to ferocious public...

MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- U.S. and British diplomats discussed exerting pressure on Pope Pius XII to be silent about the Nazi deportations of Hungarian Jews, according to newly discovered documentation. The British feared that the wartime pope might make a "radio appeal on behalf of the Jews in Hungary" and that in the course of his broadcast would "also criticize what the Russians are doing in occupied territory." Sir Francis D'Arcy Osborne, the British ambassador to the Vatican, told an American diplomat that "something should be done to prevail upon the pope not to do this as it will have...

The spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion admitted on Thursday that he felt “very uncomfortable” with the killing of Osama bin Laden when he was unarmed. Contrary to initial reports that bin Laden had engaged in a 40-minute gun fight with U.S. Navy Seals, it emerged on Wednesday that the al-Qaida leader had been unarmed when he was shot dead in his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on Sunday. Answering a question about the killing at a press briefing, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams also criticized conflicting reports coming from the White House about the events surrounding bin Laden’s death....

Dr Rowan Williams warned that the shooting dead of the unarmed al-Qaeda leader meant justice was not "seen to be done". The differing accounts of the American special forces' operation which have emerged from the White House since Monday "have not helped", he said. At a press conference at Lambeth Palace, The Daily Telegraph asked Dr Williams whether he thought the US had been right to kill bin Laden. After declining to respond initially, he later replied: “I think the killing of an unarmed man is always going to leave a very uncomfortable feeling, because it doesn’t look as if...

Pope Benedict has called on immigrants to respect the laws and national identity of their host countries. He said that every country had the right to regulate the flow of migration and immigrants had a duty to integrate.The Pope's comments are likely to add to the Europe-wide debate about integration of foreigners.The Vatican traditionally identifies with migrants and refugees and recently criticised France for deporting 1,000 Roma (gypsies) to Romania and Bulgaria.During the summer, about 200 camps were dismantled.The policy aroused a sharp response from the EU and prompted the Pope to tell French pilgrims they should "accept legitimate human...

New York City Archbishop Anthony Dolan offers scathing criticism of The New York Times for its positive reviews of a play and art exhibit that he says are offensive to Catholics. The art exhibit, showing in Cambridge, Mass., includes a poster showing the late Cardinal John O'Connor next to a condom. The exhibit was created by AIDS advocacy group ACT UP. The play, "The Divine Sister," is a comedy about nuns that is playing in New York City.

Blessing for the City of Angels At the USCCB Fall Meeting in Baltimore in November of 2008, I had the privilege of sitting down for a brief conversation with the man that Pope Benedict XVI recently named as Coadjutor and the next Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles; Most Reverend José H. Gomez, S.T.D. As I made arrangements for the interview that afternoon, I’ll never forget what the USCCB Media Relations staffer said to me just before His Excellency and I sat down, “Be nice to Archbishop Gomez, he’s my friend!” I soon got a sense for why this...

...New Advent's Kevin Knight cites unnamed sources to report tonight that, in his pontificate's most significant move on these shores, Pope Benedict will name Jose Gomez, 58, archbishop of San Antonio since February 2005, as coadjutor-archbishop of Los Angeles. In the process, the native of Mexico -- the lone American bishop professed as a numerary (full member) of Opus Dei -- will make history, becoming the first Hispanic prelate placed in line for a Stateside red hat. The appointment would bring to a close several months' worth of intense consultation and speculation since word of Cardinal Roger Mahony's request for...

On Saturday Rocco Palmo announced on his blog that he has learned that the terma, the final three names submitted to Pope Benedict for the job of Shepherd of Los Angeles, includes both Hispanic and Anglo candidates. Palmo writes: "again, the demographics of the archdiocese are an immense consideration here, but so is the skill-set of a candidate given the Holy See's assessment of the place" ("Back Page" live discussion, posted at 10:27). In the last post, I looked at the Hispanic bishops most frequently named in connection with this story. But what if it's not a Hispanic? Obviously, if,...

Friday, January 29, 2010 Los Angeles Getting a New Archbishop (Part 1) Catholic blogger Thomas Peters over at the American Papist has been posting (here, here, and here) that a coadjuter bishop has been appointed for Los Angeles. Rocco Palmo at Whispers in the Loggia has confirmed that something is imminent, reporting that the news will come around the cardinal's 74th birthday, February 27th. The coadjuter would of course become Cardinal Mahony's successor (for more on what Church law says about coadjutor bishops go here). That an appointment has already been made was denied by the official diocesan spokesman, but...

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has told an indigenous Ecuadorean farmer that her voice and the voices of the world’s poor are critical to achieving a strong climate deal for the most vulnerable communities. Fabiola Quishpe, 42, who spends much of her time farming the land in her rural village high in the Ecuadorean Andes, is attending the pivotal Copenhagen summit as part of international development charity Progressio’s delegation. ...Fabiola told Dr Williams how her small community is working to protect the Andean grasslands and striving to live in harmony with nature ..."But they have the most to...

Just in the nick of time we see some real leadership from the Archbishop of Canterbury. No no, he isn't doing anything crazy to save the Anglican communion like embracing orthodoxy or anything. Canterbury leads us in a different direction, off a cliff. Rowan Williams has come out strongly in favor of the doctrine of higher taxes. Further, he gives us the source of this divinely inspired revelation, Big Brother 11. [Telegraph]Dr Rowan Williams said that taxation should not be seen as a way of stifling business or redistributing wealth but helping to make the world a better place in...

Readers of Catholic Online are familiar with the group which calls itself the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.” They claim international membership. One of their most active chapters is located in San Francisco, California. They summarize their mission as “Defining San Francisco Values Since 1979” on their outlandish San Francisco web site. In an editorial in 2007 entitled “Scandal in San Francisco”, I wrote an account of their sacrilegious activities during Holy Mass on October 7, 2007 at the Most Holy Redeemer Parish in San Francisco, California. They hate the Catholic Church because she stands for the truth concerning the dignity...

Roman Catholics from near and far will gather in St. Louis to mark the installation of Archbishop Robert Carlson. An elaborate Mass to mark his beginning as archbishop of the St. Louis Archdiocese will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Cathedral Basilica. He'll lead a region with nearly half a million Catholics. Carlson says he will be firm on church teaching, but he believes in dialogue - even with those he may disagree with. He says without that communication, it's impossible to get someone else's point of view. The 64-year-old most recently served as the bishop of the...

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan hasn’t wasted time getting his hands dirty. In his first two weeks on the job, the city's Roman Catholic leader has toured the World Trade Center site. He threw out a pitch for the Mets and noshed on city hot dogs. Now, he’s getting close to a 100-ton boring machine. Dolan will bless the drill used to dig the $2.1 billion extension of the No. 7 line Friday, MTA officials announced. Sandhogs now cutting the 7,100-foot twin tunnels flowing west from Times Square requested Dolan’s grace. Priests have blessed the subway drills over the years,...

Pope Benedict XVI has named a Midwesterner — though one with no local roots — as the next Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Louis. The 64-year-old archbishop-elect, Bishop Robert J. Carlson, has led the Saginaw, Mich. diocese since 2005. He will be the 10th ordinary, or leader, of St. Louis Catholics since 1827. Carlson, a veteran administrator with 25 years’ experience leading dioceses, succeeds Archbishop Raymond Burke, whose four-and-a-half year tenure as St. Louis Catholic leader ended in June when the pope named him to lead the Vatican’ s supreme court. Like Burke, Carlson is trained as a canon, or...

AMDG Installation Homily JMJ "This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad! Alleluia!""He has risen as He said, alleluia! alleluia!""Jesus Christ yesterday and today, the beginning and the end, Alpha and Omega.All time belongs to Himand all the ages, to Him be glory and power! Amen!"You are all so very welcome here, in this "Cathedral of suitable magnificence," as Archbishop John Hughes, whose cross I wear today, termed it, that has been such a warm, embracing spiritual home for untold millions. Thank you, thank you all for so personally supporting me as I begin...

Archbishop Charles Chaput spoke about how Catholics should live out their faith in the public square. He warned that in the U.S., Catholics need to act on their faith and be on guard against "a spirit of adulation bordering on servility" that exists towards the Obama administration. But whatever his strengths, there’s no way to reinvent his record on abortion and related issues with rosy marketing about unity, hope and change. But as Catholics, we at least need to be honest with ourselves and each other about the political facts we start with." According to the archbishop, the political situation...

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). The question of the age of the earth has produced heated discussions on debate boards, classrooms, TV, radio, and in many churches, Christian colleges, and seminaries. The primary sides are: *Young earth proponents (biblical age of the earth and universe of about 6,000 years)1 *Old earth proponents (secular age of the earth of about 4.5 billion years and a universe about 14 billion years old)2 The difference is immense! Let’s give a little history of where these two basic calculations came from and which worldview is more reasonable...

Archbishop Timothy Dolan Rome, Italy, Feb 13, 2009 / 02:30 pm (CNA).- The eagerly anticipated appointment of the new Archbishop of New York appears to be just around the corner. The well-connected Italian journalist Paolo Rodari, who writes for Il Reformista, is reporting that Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee will soon be announced as the new head of the most important U.S. diocese.Church watchers have been itching to hear who will replace Cardinal Edward Egan for almost two years and as Rodari reports, "the announcement should arrive shortly."Rumors have been circulating with increasing frequency over the past several weeks,...

Poll reveals public doubts over Charles Darwin's theory of evolution Belief in creationism is widespread in Britain, according to a new survey. ... More than half of the public believe that the theory of evolution cannot explain the full complexity of life on Earth, and a "designer" must have lent a hand, the findings suggest. And one in three believe that God created the world within the past 10,000 years. The survey, by respected polling firm ComRes, will fuel the debate around evolution and creationism ahead of next week's 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin...

The election of Barack Obama as the first African-American US President could pave the way for the election of the first black Pope, according to a leading black American Catholic. Wilton Daniel Gregory, 60, the Archbishop of Atlanta, said that in the past Pope Benedict XVI had himself suggested that the election of a black pontiff would "send a splendid signal to the world" about the universal Church. Archbishop Gregory, who in 2001 became the first African American to head the US Bishops Conference, serving for three years, said that the election of Mr Obama was "a great step forward...

Wednesday October 1, 2008 Oregon Archbishop Criticizes Catholic Governor for Hosting Pro-Abortion Event By Kathleen GilbertPORTLAND, October 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Portland Archbishop John Vlazny has criticized Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski of Oregon for bringing scandal to fellow Catholics by hosting an abortion rights fundraiser only two days before Portland's annual "Respect Life" Mass.  Kulongoski and his wife, both professed Catholics, are the honorary hosts of a two-day fundraiser for NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon."This is a source of embarrassment for our church and a scandal for the Catholic community," Vlazny said in a statement. "For a Catholic governor to host...

LONDON (CNS) -- Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, England, has come under fire for his homily during a pilgrimage to the Marian sanctuaries in Lourdes, France. Archbishop Williams, leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, said in a homily during a Sept. 24 international Mass at Lourdes that when Mary appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 "she came at first as an anonymous figure, a beautiful lady, a mysterious thing, not yet identified as the Lord's spotless mother. "And Bernadette -- uneducated, uninstructed in doctrine -- leaped with joy, recognizing that here was life, here was healing," he said....

Christians in the Middle East are facing persecution because of British and American foreign policy, the Archbishop of Canterbury will claim today. Dr Rowan Williams will say that many Christians have been forced to flee their homes in the Holy Land because of 'appalling pressure' from extremist Islamic groups. And he will warn that historic communities risk becoming mere 'museum pieces' in the 'theme park' Middle East because of the military policies of the West. During an appearance in London yesterday, he said there was a risk that the region could become a "monochrome" area dominated by an "unfriendly" form...

The beloved Archbishop of Mosul,Iraq was found dead, another True Martyr in Iraq.Catholic Online pledges our prayer and solidarity to our Chaldean Catholic brothers and sisters in Iraq, in America and throughout the world.

A Chaldean Catholic archbishop kidnapped last month in northern Iraq has been found dead, the information service of the Italian Catholic Church said Thursday. The body of Paulos Faraj Rahho, the archbishop of Mosul, was found near the northern city, the Church said, quoting the auxiliary archbishop of Baghdad, Shlemon Warduni. "We recovered his body near Mosul," Warduni said, according to the Church's news agency SIR. "The kidnappers had buried him." Rahho was kidnapped on February 29 in Mosul after a deadly shootout in which three of his companions were killed. Iraqi forces in Mosul had fanned out to search...

The assault against Catholics in Iraq has continued, and sadly, is escalating....We call on President Bush and the current American administration to do everything within their power to secure the release of Archbishop Rahho.

One of the great appeals that religion has had for people throughout history is that, through its particular doctrine a religion makes sense of existence for them. It gives purpose, it sets forth rules to live by and a corresponding moral code. And then there is the Church of England...

PHILLIPS: Well, this is the problem with the archbishop. He thinks that it`s possible to have a nice kind of Sharia, a liberal, western kind of Sharia and not have, you know, amputations and stonings and all that sort of stuff. And I`m afraid he`s very naive. He doesn`t actually understand what Sharia is. But it`s not simply the Sharia courts that you just mentioned, which operate outside the criminal law in administering justice. We also now have Sharia-compliant finance, Sharia-compliant mortgages. Our prime minister has said he wants Britain to be the center of Islamic financing. Our state welfare...

(Speaking to the General Synod, Dr Williams refused to apologise for his remarks but admitted he had been 'clumsy') The Queen is distressed by the row over Islamic law which she fears threatens to undermine the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury and damage the Church of England. Speaking to the General Synod, Dr Williams refused to apologise for his remarks but admitted he had been 'clumsy' According to a royal source, the Queen has not expressed any view on whether Dr Rowan Williams was unwise to say it was "unavoidable" that aspects of the sharia legal system could be...

The British tabloids are right to bash the archbishop of Canterbury. Is this a storm in a teacup, as the archbishop now claims? Was the "feeding frenzy" biased and unfair? Certainly, it is true that, since last Thursday, when Rowan Williams—the archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Church of England, symbolic leader of the international Anglican Church—called for "constructive accommodation" with some aspects of sharia law and declared the incorporation of Muslim religious law into the British legal system "unavoidable," practically no insult has been left unsaid. One Daily Telegraph columnist called the archbishop's statement a "disgraceful act of...

WASHINGTON -- Islam has a new convert. Some will be surprised, but I am not. The newest convert to the religion of the unshaven face is Archbishop Rowan Williams. Dr. Williams has been the spiritual leader of the Anglican Church in the U.K. However, after his Feb. 7 interview on the BBC, I think we all can agree that he is not so much a spiritual leader as a spiritual capitulator. In his wonderfully wooly-headed interview, derived from a public lecture delivered by him at the Royal Courts of Justice, Williams called on his countrymen to arrive at "constructive accommodation"...

"Latest story: The Archbishop of Canterbury caused consternation yesterday by calling for Islamic law to be recognised in Britain. He declared that Sharia and Parliamentary law should be given equal legal status so the people could choose which governs their lives."

Carey weighs into Sharia law row Lord Carey said his successor was a "great leader" Pressure has mounted on the Archbishop of Canterbury after his comments about Islamic Sharia law were criticised by his predecessor.Lord Carey said Dr Rowan Williams's suggested acceptance of some Muslim laws was "a view I cannot share". But, writing in the News of the World, he said Dr Williams should not be forced to quit. Dr Williams has insisted he was not advocating a parallel set of laws, but has faced calls for his resignation. Supporters have described the reaction to his comments as...

The Archbishop of Canterbury will try to put aside the row over sharia law as he makes his first public appearance since the controversy erupted. Dr Rowan Williams hit back on Friday night over criticism of his comments amid growing calls for his resignation. He made no proposals for sharia, and "certainly did not call for its introduction as some kind of parallel jurisdiction to the civil law... his core aim was "to tease out some of the broader issues around the rights of religious groups within a secular state". At least two Synod members have already called for Dr...

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has sparked a political storm by calling for aspects of Sharia law to be adopted in Britain. Your View: Is Sharia law in Britain unavoidable? Christopher Howse: Sharia is no law for Britain Damian Thompson: Williams' authority is in tatters Dr Williams said it "seems inevitable" that elements of Islamic law, such as divorce proceedings, would be incorporated into British law. Dr Williams backs adopting parts of Islamic Sharia law Dr Williams said the UK had to "face up to the fact" that some citizens do not relate to the British legal system,...